Chapter 4: 4. Sarah and Dustin

Sarah’s tail flicks in front of my face once more and I have to brush it away. “Sarah, get a hold of your tail!” I growl gently.

She shrugs, not even turning away from the television. “It’s got a mind of its own.”

I sigh, brushing the tail away once more before clicking through to another forum post. The T.V. switches to commercials, causing Sarah to shift. She flips over in her position on my lap, turning to look at the laptop. I try very hard to focus on the computer and not think at all about Sarah’s choice to lounge around in my lap.

“Are you logged in through my account?” She asks, seeing the page that I’m on. I nod, once, still scrolling. “Gotcha. Don’t make any posts.” I roll my eyes at that, nodding in response. Sarah offered to let me use her laptop once we got to her place and I’m currently looking through forums for any recent posts involving Burnout.

Sarah stretches wide, grabbing my tail gently. I straighten up at that, shooting her a look. “Sorry, I’ll be gentle.” She smiles at me apologetically, running her fingers through the fur. I try my hardest to ignore her, turning back to the computer.

“So, Burnout isn’t a proper speedster?” I say simply, still reading forum posts.

“Nope,” She responds, shifting onto her back while still playing with my tail. “If he was, I probably wouldn’t have been able to escape.”

“So, what, he charges forward at speed, but still moves normally?” I ask, frowning to myself.

“Guess so. Decent hand to hand combat, but he’s no Reflex.” She shrugs.

“There’s something more to those multicolored clouds of fog he leaves around and it doesn’t seem like it’s mentioned here at all.” I drum my fingers against the laptop idly, thinking to myself.

“Why do you say that?” She asks, glancing at me from the corner of her eye.

“The other Wardens kept their distance from it, almost worried about even touching it.” I point out.

She thinks about this, frowning. “Huh, now that you mention it… my power might have been guiding me away from the few he summoned near me during our short fight.” I hum idly at that, shaking the thought away.

“This is some serious Super tech,” Sarah says. I look back to her and she’s holding one of my Tonfas carefully, having pressed the button that makes the blades come out of it. I take it back, closing them up and slipping it back into the holster attached to my boot.

“Yes, it is.” I say simply, not wanting to explain where I got it.

“Damn, you must know someone important. Only Super Inventors in the area are the Tinkers.” I don’t say anything, closing the laptop slowly. There’s no mention of the information I want to know in any of the forum posts yet. I cast my mind away from villain thoughts, thinking about my best friend.

It’s been a couple of days now since I’ve gained my second set of powers and I haven’t told my best friend Dustin yet. I had been planning out how to do it, but then I had gotten caught up in another project (my suit). I need to do it soon.

I sigh, sinking deeper into the couch.

“What’s up?” Sarah asks gently. I smile at that. It’s nice to have another friend, aside from Dustin I’m notorious for having a bad track record concerning friends.

“Nothing. Was just thinking about my best friend. I need to tell him that I’m a villain now.” I explain casually.

“You’re gonna tell him?”

I shrug noncommittally. “I want to. We tell each other everything.” I can’t imagine having to keep this a secret from him.

She smirks gently and I meet her eyes. She reaches up and boops my nose. I go cross-eyed, watching her do that. “Sounds like you like him,” she giggles to herself conspiratorially.

I look at her in confusion at that. “Of course I do? I just said that we’re friends?”

“No, dummy. I mean like like him.”

My eyes go wide and I wave my arms in front of myself. “I- what! No, I, we’re both-” I stop myself, looking at my outfit. Right, she thinks I’m a girl. “I don’t like him. I like girls.” I say simply.

Her eyes widen a bit at that, but she nods. “Right on! Good for you, girl.” She gives me a thumbs up from her position in my lap. After a second, she props herself up on an elbow and looks me in the eye, “Just so long as you don’t get any funny ideas! Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m Ace through and through.”

I look her in the eyes carefully and she meets my stare dead on. I open my mouth to answer, but I stop myself and close my mouth again. I look at her position in my lap, quirk my eyebrow at that, and gesture to her. “You realize that you put yourself in my lap, right?”

She shrugs, flopping back down and flicking her tail into my face again. “You have a comfy lap, what can I say?”

I brush the tail out of my face, “What does that mean anyways?”

She smirks, glancing up at me, “It means your thighs are thick and soft. Perfect for lounging.”

My cheeks go red at that and I glare at her. “Not that. Ace. That thing you said.”

It’s her turn to look at me strangely now. “Asexual? It means that I’m not attracted to people sexually. I don’t really get it.” She shrugs, “You’ve never heard of it before?”

It’s my turn to shrug. “I’ve never really thought about it. I know that some people like other people of the same gender or whatever, but I’ve never really looked into it or anything.”

“Oh jeez, girl. So you’re really out of touch with this whole LGBTQA+ thing, huh?”

I blink at that. “Is… is that an acronym?”

“You know, Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, ace, and plus.” She thinks for a second before clarifying, “The plus is referring to more labels, not one label named plus.”

“I… don’t know what half of those are.” I say, tapping my chin in thought. “I think I’ve heard of bisexual? I didn’t really get it when I heard about it.”

Sarah sighs, sitting up in my lap, curling her tail around torso to hold it while she talks. “So, instead of liking either guys or girls, bi, short for bisexual, people don’t make that choice. They just like both.” My eyes go wide as I think about that.

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“You can do that?” I ask in surprise. “Wow. I didn’t realize.” She smiles at me knowingly, but she doesn’t say anything further. I shake my head, having gotten sidetracked. “Anyways, yes, I’m going to tell my best friend. I’ll probably message him as soon as I get home that we should talk.”

Sarah nods to herself, glancing at the clock. “Enough time has probably passed for you to make your way back to your house. You can swing by here next time you want to head out. Just not tomorrow, I think I’m still going to be sore tomorrow.” She winces as she hops off of my lap. “Even with my own precognition, Reflex can still manage to land some solid hits.”

I chuckle at that, picking myself off of her couch. “Will do.” I grab my share of the money sitting on Sarah’s coffee table. Easily a couple thousand dollars in twenty dollar bills. A tidy sum.

I go to Sarah’s balcony, jumping down onto a nearby rooftop deftly.

I run into my room quickly, pulling the door shut behind me. Thankfully, no one is around to question why I’m coming through the front door in my underwear. I forgot that all I had been wearing before I put the suit on was my hoodie. I’m going to need to stash clothes somewhere outside when I go out, so I can return through the front door in my normal form.

With that dilemma behind me, I put on some pants and flop onto my bed. After all the excitement, exhaustion is starting to kick in.

-bzzzt bzzzt-

I glance over at my nightstand. My phone is sitting on top of it, still buzzing gently. I pick up the phone, looking at the caller ID.

My eyes go wide as I see who it is and I sit up.

I open my phone, greeting my best friend, “Hey, Dustin!”

“Sebastian! It’s been a while since we talked.” His familiar deep voice responds. “How have you been?”

I shrug, not that he would see that, and look at my bracelet. “I’ve been… good. Busy. Thinking about some stuff.” I gulp down a small lump in my throat and push forward, “Actually, I’ve got something I want to tell you soon.”

His response is bright, “Hey, me too! Don’t suppose I can come by now? It’s kind of a big thing and I shouldn’t say it over the phone.” I light up at that. That’s perfect, I can tell him tonight.

“Yeah, come on by!” I say.

“See you soon then!” He hangs up on me, leaving me to wait for him.

I do some simple picking up around my room, tidying my lab up as much as possible. It exists in a state of somewhat perpetual chaos, an organized chaos, but still somewhat chaotic. I try my best to hide my pile of clean clothes, a mixture of gray and black tee shirts and hoodies. My new superhero suit is the brightest thing I’ve ever worn, and even that’s still mostly black.

I look at my room after I’ve cleaned and it looks… still really cluttered. At least Dustin knows what to expect from my room.

A knock at the door startles me and I look over my shoulder at the door. I open it a crack, glancing through the crack and looking at the figure in the hallway. Six feet tall and in the dim hallway I can see splotches of his skin glowing gently. I smile, opening the door wider. As the light from my room hits his skin, he stops glowing. There’s only one six foot Bioluminescent dork I know.

“Hey, Dustin, come in.” I usher him into my room, slowly closing the door behind him. He opens his arms wide and I hug him tightly.

“Ouch, ouch, careful.” He pulls away slightly, wincing gently. “Hurt my ribs earlier.” I frown at that, poking lightly at a rib. He winces at that, gently batting my finger away.

“What happened?” I ask, concerned.

“That’s part of what I wanted to tell you about! It’s really important though, so you have to promise to keep it a secret.” He says, looking at me seriously.

I smile at that. That fits into my plans too. “Well, what I have to tell you is a secret too! I promise if you promise.”

He nods his head, holding out his hand to shake. “Deal,” he says. I shake his hand and he continues. “So, I was out walking a couple of days ago and I saw a shooting star! I hung around to see where it went and you won’t believe it!” He steps away from me, walking over to the far end of my room. He rushes forward quickly, crossing my room in the blink of an eye. A multicolored fog cloud hangs in the air behind him and I can feel all of the hairs on my body standing at attention.

He continues talking, his expression one of excitement. “I got powers! I joined the local super team the very next day and I’ve been out fighting crime since!” He clutches his rib gently, pointing at it. “One of the local villains, Present Perfect, she got some solid hits on me.”

I close my mouth, realizing that it’s hanging open. I search his face, but he doesn’t seem to have any idea. Of course he doesn’t, why would he. Should I tell him? Before I was sure that I should, but now it sounds like an awful idea. I try to arrange my thoughts, crafting a response. “Oh, yeah? Did you get her?” I say evenly.

He shakes his head sadly, sitting back on my bed. “Nope. She was working with some new Super today. They both got away.”

“Oh,” I say, trying to inflect some surprise into my voice, “Darn.”

He leans back onto his arms, sighing deeply. “Yeah.” He perks up, looking at me. “You had something you wanted to tell me too? Something important?”

Oh. Shoot. I told him that, didn’t I?

“Uh…” I say, looking him straight in the face. Think, think, think. “I wanted to tell you, that…” What’s something that is suitably important enough? I blanch at the thought that comes to mind. I think for a second more, trying to find anything else. Nothing is forthcoming.

I sigh, turning my gaze to the floor. “I wanted to tell you that I was thinking of joining the Wardens too. As an emergency hero and gadgets supplier?”

His eyes widen at that and he embraces me in a hug. “Really? That’s so great! Let’s go sign you up tomorrow!” He lets me go, standing up excitedly. “With my word and your family history, you’re a shoe in!” He looks over at the lab section of my room. “Want my help deciding on what inventions to bring as a showcase of what you can do?”

I shake my head, looking at one of my boxes of gadgets. I’ll need to go through and sort through things that might be useful for my villaining and what would be useful for the heroes. If I’m really going to be living a double life, I’m going to have to be a lot more careful from now on. “No, I can sort through it myself.” I stand up, poking him in the ribs. “You need to get some rest, maybe an ice pack.” I smile good naturedly at him.

He smiles widely, scratching the back of his head. “Yeah, I guess. I just got excited about telling you. I’ll leave you to it then.” He shoots me a thumbs up as he walks towards the door. “See you at the Headquarters tomorrow then!”

I wave goodbye, forcing a smile onto my face. “Yeah… see you.” The door clicks closed behind him and I stare at it impassively for several seconds after he’s gone.

I slump to the floor with a groan, pulling my knees in close. “Well.” I say gruffly, “This sucks.”

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